Supplies (in order of attachment):
- Barbie doll, or an action figure like G.I. Joe, Superman, or Captain America
- Velcro: One-wrap (don't get Sticky Back)
- Carabiners
- Swivel Spring Snap (optional)
- Fixed Pulley
- Rope (thin enough to fit through the pulley)
Buy enough rope so that you can have lengths that are 10 feet apart. In other words, have different rope lengths: 30 ft., 40 ft., 50 ft., 60 ft., etc. This will play well into the mathematical modeling part of the task (see below). It will also help make it easier to get the pulley systems on and off of the zip line. Solving the task yourself will also help determine the rope lengths you'll need for your school site.
The task (handouts found here):
Depending where (and who) you teach, some students have been zip-lining before. Ask! It never hurts. Maybe they can share their experience. Plus, this gives you a chance, at some point (if you feel necessary), to talk about how they're sitting in front of you, ALIVE, because someone was able to do some solid math and build a sound enough structure for them to zip line on. Just sayin'.
I low-balled my students today on their budget. I should have raised it to $2500 or $3000. Figure out what will work for your site. However, this mistake allowed me to give some early finishers an extension: find a more reasonable starting budget.
Here are the opening costs of your zip line company:
All these prices can change depending on your tastes. I included a liability insurance just for fun. The materials for the harness and pulley system need to be of high quality, so don't make them cheap. $50 might have been too cheap. The most important material is the steel cable (rope). This will help create multiple solution strategies. It's beautiful. Overall, I was pleased with my price points.
Students innately know what type of zip line would kill barbie: a steep zip line. They can sketch that on their whiteboard, no problem. On the flip side, students have a good understanding of a boring zip line: practically a horizontal line. They can also sketch that on their whiteboard. Both sketches can be done without using numbers, formulas, or mathematical notation. It creates an entry point for all students. So here's what they had to say:
Leyla: We have a chance to see what not to do.
Trevor: It reminds me of when we do Estimation [180] and you ask us to give a too low and too high. It helps us find a reasonable number in the middle.
Deena: It shows us what a wrong answer or zip line would be.
Students were able to design their own zip line by playing around with the numbers between their certain-death zip line and boring zip line. I told them to dream big on the whiteboards as if money wasn't a factor right now. Most did. Most.
I had a couple groups first figure out the cost of all the materials ($700) and subtract it from the $1500 budget, giving their group $800 to spend on cable. With $20/foot, they could use 40 feet of cable for their zip line. They identified the height and the hypotenuse of the right triangle. Impressive.
One of these two groups felt this wasn't enough cable and it was still too steep. Michelle had been zip-lining in real life so she knew. This was my mistake, but it turned into an opportunity for me to extend this task. I asked them to create a new budget for me so the cable was longer, but within reason. If you need more of an extension, have them come up with a formula to determine the amount of cable and distance on the ground, given a specific amount of money.
Before they could go outside and test their zip line, students had to complete this list:
Here's the permit:
It was a blast! Students loved it. Here's another extension:
Have students design a system that gets the pulleys and/or dolls back up to the top of the zip line.
[insert video here]
Zip,
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